Camp NaNoWriMo, Week 2 Recap

Hello writers!

Week 2 of Camp NaNoWriMo is over in a few hours. I don’t know about you, but this week was really hard for me. I was super busy with work, and when I got home I really wasn’t in the mood to write.

That’s okay.

I am going to do my best to write tomorrow and make up for lost time.

My novel hasn’t been going exactly as planned, but I did spent a lot of time last weekend figuring out my protagonist’s goals, motivations, and fears. I also nailed down his internal conflict, which should make the novel really exciting going forward.

So, okay, maybe this week wasn’t a failure. I didn’t write, but I learned a lot about my protagonist that will help me keep going.

How is Camp NaNoWriMo going for you? Have you hit any road blocks?

 

Camp NaNoWriMo 2019

Let’s try this again, shall we?

I feel like I’ve set a record for the most times someone has said they are going to relaunch a blog and actually write posts, and then not follow through with it. I’m sorry about that.

Happy spring everyone, and happy April. Every April I wonder if I should participate in Camp NaNoWriMo, the twice-a-year extension of National Novel Writing Month. I always want to, but April is usually a busy time of year for me.

This year is no exception. I just started a working full time 9-6 in March, and I started worrying that I wouldn’t be able to write. That, plus the trend for April’s Camp NaNo to go very bad for me, made me want to skip it this year.

However, I am happy to say that I decided to continue working on my contemporary fantasy novel, Firgrove, for camp this year.

So far I’ve written just shy of 2k words this month, bringing the novel to around the 25k mark total. I’m excited to see where this story goes this month!

How I Prep for NaNoWriMo

Hello everyone.

I released a new YouTube video today discussing how I prepare for National Novel Writing Month.

You can watch my new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdnDou7mqSs

This year I am rewriting the first half of my epic fantasy novel, A Clash of Crimson, and hopefully I’ll be able to write the unfinished second half.

Since I already had my idea and most of my characters going into Preptober, I didn’t have to come up with something new. You might think that gave me an advantage. Honestly, I’m not sure if it did. I’ve changed so much and questioned everything.

This past month I’ve created a new 9-page outline for my novel, worked on the goals/motives/backstory/personality types for my main characters, reworked the cover of my novel, created maps of my world and cities, and I’ve been organizing everything.

I also let people (strangers, btw) read the last draft of A Clash of Crimson for the first time. I provided a few chapters and received some great feedback.

I’ll be back with more posts as NaNoWriMo begins. Until then, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time 🙂

Greetings, AuthorTube/WriterTube!

I finally did. After years of only uploading videos of my hikes, adventures, drone footage, and narrative films, I decided to launch a separate YouTube channel just for my writing.

Welcome to Chase Charaba Writes (also titled A Writer’s Outlook, just like this blog). On this new channel I plan to upload videos about my writing projects and my quest to finish an epic fantasy novel and get it published. I’ll also be vlogging about my National Novel Writing Month experience this year, and I may even read some old writing.

You can check out my first video and subscribe here.

I’ll be coming back to blog during NaNoWriMo, because I know that I’ll need to vent about it this year. See you then!

Most recent video on YouTube:

NaNoWriMo Prep begins

As always seems to happen, we’re now a month away from National Novel Writing Month, and I’m freaking out because I don’t feel prepared.

Usually by the time NaNoWriMo comes around, I had been working on my novel in July and August and completely forgotten about writing. Neglecting my writing for most of the year seems to be a trait of mine.

This time around, I actually did some worldbuilding and outlining in September!

It feels like I’ve accomplished nothing and I’m freaking out, but looking back I got a lot done in September.

I redrew my world map and actually designed a digital copy with Adobe Photoshop. It’s looking real good and I’m very impressed with it. This resulted in renaming a few kingdoms and that sort of thing. Now I just need to focus on nailing down the climate patterns, plate tectonics, and volcanism.

I also started thinking about the different cultures in my world. I have a long way to go with that one, but it’s something I’ve meant to do for years.

Finally, I changed a ton of the plot and I’m rethinking everything. Maybe not the best place to be, but I think I’ll come out of October with a stronger plot than before. The main plot hasn’t changed, but I have a better understanding of my protagonist and antagonists than before, so it necessitated a few major changes.

I’ll keep you all updated as we approach NaNoWriMo!

Are you participating this year? What have you done so far to prepare? I’d love to hear from you!

Camp NaNoWriMo Update

Camp NaNoWriMo wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, but I’m still proud of my accomplishments so far. There are still a few days remaining in the challenge I set for myself to rewrite part of my epic fantasy novel and I probably won’t reach my goal.

That’s okay.

April Camp NaNo has never gone well for me. I usually don’t find time to write until the July version. This April Camp NaNo is my most successful so far, even though I’ll likely come out short.

My plan is to get through rewriting another chapter or two by the end of this month and I’ll be satisfied with that. There are some huge changes in my life right now that will require my focus, and I’m glad that I was able to make some progress this early in the year.

 

 

 

Camp NaNoWriMo Day One

Progress: 1721 words

I managed to get some rewriting done in my epic fantasy novel late last night. Right now I’m focusing on rewriting the story and not worrying so much about grammar. I’ll save that for when I finish the novel.

So far the beginning of the prologue has been greatly expanded and I tried to slow the pace and make one particular scene a little creepier. I haven’t succeeded with the latter, so I’ll spend some more time with that today (after I start my math homework for college).

One thing I should note is how I do my rewrites. I count the number of words in the new draft rather than hours spent rewriting the story. I have two Word documents open and I write a line at a time, usually reworking it completely. It takes a while, but I’ve seen great results between my drafts in the past.

That’s all for this update. I’ll have a new video on YouTube today about my first week of Spring Quarter classes at the university, which you can find on my channel at 11am PDT.

Edit: the video is now live here: 

How did your first day go?

Camp NaNoWriMo is here

Happy Easter and happy April Fool’s Day! It’s also the start of Camp NaNoWriMo’s April edition.

After making considerable progress in my contemporary fantasy novel this week, I will be shifting my focus toward my epic fantasy novel. I want to use Camp NaNoWriMo to rewrite the first half of Clash of Crimson. As much as I was having fun experimenting with vigilantes, magic in a modern setting, and writing about a character who had suffered much loss in his life, I need to take a break.

Firgrove has been an idea of mine dating back to 2014 I believe, but I realized while writing it that I didn’t know the story I was trying to tell. That’s the point of a first draft, but I couldn’t connect all of these crazy ideas that I had for the novel.

I think it’s best that I keep thinking about Firgrove and jotting down more ideas for it throughout April. Rewriting Clash is my priority because I think it’s about damn time to actually finish a draft of a novel. If I remain on track, I might actually be able to finish a complete draft of the novel this year of early next year. That’s a big deal, because I’ve been trying to finish it for 5 years. Considering that this is supposed to be the first book in a larger series (I have enough ideas for like 8 books), you can begin to see why I’m shifting my focus back to it.

Unlike Firgrove, I know the story I want to tell with Clash. I’ve had 11 years to think about where I want the series to go. My biggest problem has been forcing myself to sit down and write it. Working on a novel every November and July isn’t enough. I need to start working on it as often as I can.

That’s why I’m trying to rewrite as much as I can this month. I have new characters to add to the story, a new interpretation of the plot, and some much needed clarification on the setting.

I’m in a cabin for editing and revising this month, and so far some great resources have been shared that I’ll be using in my rewrite. I’m exciting see how much I get done with everything else that’s going on in my life.

More on that later. For now, I have writing to do.

What are you writing for Camp NaNoWriMo? Have you had any day 1 successes?

 

Camp NaNoWriMo season and 85k90

This year I participated in my first ever 85k90, a free writing challenge from January to the end of March where you write 85,000 words of a novel in 90 days.

After failing at NaNoWriMo this past year and changing my novel halfway through, I decided that 85k90 would be a great time to work on my new experimental urban fantasy/thriller novel. It was at first. About halfway through I just realized that I wasn’t ready to write that particular story and I switched back to working on my epic fantasy series.

I got busy with university and I decided to put more effort into my YouTube channel, which resulted in me not writing much of anything.

But I’m not disappointed. Camp NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, which means I have a chance to redeem myself and actually work on my epic fantasy novel.

If you’ve read any of the posts on this blog, you’ll know that I have never had success during the April version of Camp NaNoWriMo. It’s such a busy time of year for me. This time, I’m just going to write when I feel like and do some worldbuilding and the like. Even if it’s twice a week, I’ll be happy.

Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this year? If so, what are you going to be writing?

-Chase Charaba

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NaNoWriMo 2017 Playlist

Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog, but it’s National Novel Writing Month, and that means I’m in the mood for writing.

But I’ve noticed something over the years. Without good music, writing is difficult for me.

Every year I make a playlist for NaNoWriMo, usually consisting of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and other instrumentals from fantasy movies. However, this year I am writing a contemporary fantasy/supernatural/YA novel.

Here’s my playlist for writing this year:

• “Ramblin’ Bones” – Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown
• “Could Have Been Me (Acoustic)” – The Struts
• “Kiss This (Acoustic)” – The Struts
• “Put Your Money On Me (Acoustic)” – The Struts
• “Barefoot” – Mount Holly
• “Feel About You” – Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie
• “Edge of Darkness” – Greta Van Fleet
• “Flower Power” – Greta Van Fleet
• “Meet On the Ledge” – Greta Van Fleet
• “Talk On the Street” – Greta Van Fleet
• “New Man” – Ed Sheeran
• “Slow 30’s Room” – David Lynch & Dean Hurley
• “The Promise” – Chris Cornell
• “My Monster” – Blondie
• “Dark Mood Woods/ The Red Room” – Angelo Badalamenti
• “The Sound of A” – Alice Cooper
• “Your Own Drum” – Sully Erna
• “Blue Skies” – Sully Erna
• “Hometown Life” – Sully Erna
• “Janie’s Got a Gun” – Steven Tyler (solo version)
• “So Bad” – Brandon Skeie
• “Running With the Dogs (Acoustic Version)” – The Treatment
• “Human Race” – Three Days Grace
• “Gravity” – Papa Roach
• “Cry Baby” – The Neighbourhood
• “Heartbeat” – David Cook
• “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart” – Chris Cornell
• “Before We Disappear” – Chris Cornell
• “Storm” – Soundgarden
• “Stay Awhile” – She & Him
• “Make it Rain” – Ed Sheeran
• “Runaway” – Ed Sheeran
• “Something from Nothing” – Foo Fighters
• “Left Hand Free” – alt-J
• “Afraid” – The Neighbourhood
• “Sweater Weather” – The Neighbourhood
• “Let it Go” – The Neighbourhood
• “I See Fire” – Ed Sheeran
• “Black Saturday” – Soundgarden
• “Love Reign O’er Me” – Joe Elliott & Rick Wakeman
• “All On Your Touch[2012 Revisit]” – Def Leppard
• “Hard to Believe” – David Cook
• “Right Here, With You” – David Cook
• “Paper Heart” – David Cook
• “Dance Dance Dance” – Riverdale Cast
• “I’ll Try” – Riverdale Cast
• “Full Moon” – The Black Ghosts
• “Tell Me” – Johnny Jewel
• “The Last Goodbye” – David Cook
• “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” – She & Him